Investigation Continues in Phoenix

The NTSB is still trying to sort out the jumbled remains of the two TV choppers that collided during coverage of a pursuit on Friday. Witnesses have shed some light into what happened:

People who saw two news helicopters collide and plummet to the ground while covering a police chase say the choppers did not appear to be in distress beforehand, investigators reported Saturday.

No one described any odd sounds before impact, and they didn't see any smoke or debris from the choppers before Friday's crash, which killed all four people aboard, Chealander said.

"It appears as though the Channel 3 helicopter was stationary and the Channel 15 helicopter came up either from under the Channel 3 helicopter, or was at the same level," Chealander said. "Again, this is eyewitness testimony."

There is still talk of charging the perp with the deaths of the helicopter crewman, but at the risk of siding with the bad guy, I'm not sure that's completely fair. Let me explain.

Had a police helicopter gone down while participating in the pursuit, I could understand the filing of charges. The police have a law enforcement responsibility to catch the perp, and if an officer is injured or killed in the process, the blame can clearly be placed on the pursuee.

However, there is no requirement for TV stations to employ helicopters to follow these chases from the air. They do so because it makes for exciting pictures and helps them generate ratings. It's strictly voluntary on the part of the TV folks. Using the logic that the perp is responsible for maintaining proper separation of TV aircraft and therefore responsible for their deaths opens the door to further problems. What if you leave the iron on in your house and it stars a fire, and in the process two TV helicopters collide while filming the blaze? Are you responsible for their deaths because of your negligence with the iron?

If you've read this blog for very long, you know I'm the last guy to be sympathetic to a criminal. However, I also believe in fairness. Although we'd all like to see this guy put away for his actions on the ground, I don't think it's fair to charge him with the piloting errors that occured a couple thousand feet overhead.